


A Little Grey Around the Edges

by muse_in_absentia



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: sirius_black, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-07-11 05:46:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15965948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muse_in_absentia/pseuds/muse_in_absentia
Summary: With friends and family (and a little hair dye) fifty-nine doesn’t have to be old age, maybe more of a midlife crisis.





	A Little Grey Around the Edges

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt #:** [17](https://sirius-black.livejournal.com/314446.html?thread=1107278#t1107278)  
>  **Disclaimer:** Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.  
>  **Notes:** Thank you SO MUCH to Dray for the wonderful beta job, this wouldn’t have been the same without you. Also, to those of you on discord who listened to me whine more than I should have, thank you for putting up with me, you’re the best!

Sirius pulled the comforter up around his ears, and flopped over in his bed. The pull of sleep was still tugging at his subconscious, but he could hear his husband downstairs puttering around in the kitchen, and Sirius wasn’t quite ready to let Remus burn the house down just yet. No matter how much effort Sirius put into trying to teach Remus to cook Remus insisted on experimenting, and when that happened the results were usually as explosive as his potions. 

Grumbling to himself, Sirius slowly sat up, back popping loudly and pinching in a couple of places that he had to stretch twice to work out. He swung his feet over the edge of the bed and winced at the cold floor. Late October was brisker than he remembered it being. Finding his way into one of Remus’ oversized jumpers, Sirius tugged the sleeves over his hands like he was still a small child and trudged his way down the stairs to find his husband.

Remus was puttering around the kitchen, and Sirius stopped in the doorway to watch him for a moment before Remus noticed he was there. He loved the way Remus moved, every motion contained and precise; a habit born of stiff joints and aching muscles that translated into efficiency and capability in a way that never failed to captivate Sirius. There was a bit of regret at the cause of it, but he couldn’t help but admire the results all the same. He called it finding the good in the bad. Remus called him insane. They were probably both right, to some extent, but Sirius kept that part to himself. 

Content to just watch Remus for as long as he could stay unnoticed, Sirius had to break his own silence and step forward with a frown when Remus reached for a skillet and the package of bacon that Sirius had bought a few days earlier with thoughts of a lazy morning breakfast.

“Remus, love, what have we said about you being allowed to cook bacon?” Sirius arched an eyebrow, the effect of which was ruined slightly by the way his spine creaked loudly as he pushed himself away from the doorframe he had been leaning against. He winced a little, but stepped into the kitchen anyway, and gently pried the skillet out of Remus’ hands before it made its way to the stovetop. 

“You were still asleep, so I thought I’d make you breakfast, see if I couldn’t entice you out of bed.” Remus shrugged, unrepentant, although he did let Sirius take the pan from him.

“Well, I suppose the house burning down would have gotten me out of bed, yes,” Sirius said, undercutting his own words by leaning down for a quick kiss.

Remus flushed slightly, but held his ground. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m excellent at fire extinguishing spells!”

Putting the pan back in the cupboard and the bacon back in the refrigerator, Sirius nodded gently. “That you are, love. But what do you say we take a break from letting you practice them and go out for breakfast instead? We can go to Cup and Egg and you can have one of those really unhealthy omelets you love so much.”

With a smirk, Remus turned and headed for the stairs back up to their bedroom. “Only if I can join you in the shower first.”

By the time Sirius made it up the stairs Remus had the water running and was climbing in the shower. Sirius barely got a glimpse of his bare arse as the curtain pulled shut. Grumbling to himself about how the stairs felt like they were getting longer Sirius quickly stripped out of his sleep clothes and borrowed jumper, slipping inside the shower beside Remus.

The water was exactly the temperature Sirius liked, even though he knew Remus preferred his showers slightly warmer, and Sirius leaned into Remus’ side for a moment in silent thanks. It was comfortably non-sexual as they took turns dipping their heads under the spray and soaping up. It was only when Remus reached to try and wash Sirius’ hair for him that Sirius turned and kissed him with a little more intent. Hands started to wander a bit and Sirius tried to drop to his knees, but Remus stopped him with a hand to his shoulder, fingers digging a little in a way that made Sirius shudder.

“Let’s save that for the bed, spare your knees,” Remus said gently, drawing Sirius in for another long kiss that Sirius assumed was as much to keep him from arguing as it was for the sake of kissing. He almost pulled back on principal, but he was enjoying the gentleness with which Remus was working his mouth, exactly the way he knew Sirius liked best, so he let him get away with the distraction.

They finished each other off with just their hands, but it was slow and indulgent and Sirius couldn’t find it in himself to complain except possibly for the slight on the state of his knees. It’s not like he was old yet.

After they finished rinsing off, and washed a second time, Sirius let Remus step out of the shower first, following only to stop in front of the slightly foggy mirror to try and make his hair lay flat before he hit it with a drying charm. He learned from experience that at its most recent length, which was shorter than it had been in decades, if he didn’t take precautions it tended to fluff out around his head and he looked more like James than he cared to admit to.

If asked he would never admit to the small shriek he let out, and he just hoped Remus would be kind enough not to call him on his little white lie. It only took seconds for Remus to come stumbling back into the bathroom wide eyed and wearing nothing but his pants and a towel still draped around his shoulders, while Sirius stared at his reflection in horror, only seeing Remus behind him in the reflection.

“What is it? Are you okay?” Remus asked, words tumbling over themselves as he skidded to a halt beside Sirius.

“No, Remus, I’m not okay. Is that a _grey hair_?” Sirius demanded, fingering the hair away from his temple and glaring at his reflection, half expecting it to wink cheekily at him and wander off leaving him with his real, perfectly non-greying, reflection.

Remus, who had started going noticeably grey in his early thirties, was kind enough to only pinch his mouth into a tight line for a brief moment before letting out a large sigh and wrapping his arms around Sirius. “You know, love, you are going to be fifty-nine in a little over a week. It would be more surprising if you didn’t have a grey hair or two at this point.” Sirius was sort of amazed at how calm Remus sounded.

“No I’m...” Sirius trailed off, because he was, in fact, turning fifty-nine in a few weeks. “How did that happen?”

“Time, I would imagine,” Remus said, dryly, before letting go of Sirius again and heading off to finish getting dressed, but not without pressing a kiss to Sirius’ cheek. Sirius didn’t follow him, but he didn’t stoop to carding through his hair to make sure that one offending strand of grey was the only one. He could age gracefully and with dignity.

“Will you still love me when I’m old and ugly?” The words slipped out before he had even realized he was thinking them, and all Sirius wanted was to take them back. Or to go back ten minutes and never find that blasted hair. Maybe he could charm it black again.

Remus, for his part, didn’t dignify Sirius with an answer. When Sirius finally pried himself away from the mirror and followed Remus into the bedroom, however, his trousers did hit him in the face.

***

The day before his birthday Sirius sat alone in his bedroom, too stiff denims cutting into the backs of his knees while he tried to balance a small mirror on his knees. The denims were brand new and slightly snugger than he would have chosen, but they seemed to be what was in style at the moment, and he wasn’t ready to be seen as out dated and old fashioned, so he had purchased three pairs of them on a whim the day before. Now he was contemplating a relaxing charm on the fabric so he could breathe and wondering what was wrong with people that they wanted to wear their trousers like a strangle hold.

The mirror toppled over and he didn’t retrieve it. He had seen enough. After three different coloring tonics and a darkening charm his hair was a mottled patchwork of blacks and midnight blues, and that damned grey hair staring him in the face from just at his left temple. He was quite certain that it hadn’t stood out quite so brightly a week before.

“Just lovely,” he mumbled, morose, “Now I’m old _and_ I look like shite. I’ll be divorced before I’m sixty.” Briefly he considered going downstairs and pouring himself a stiff drink, but it was barely past lunch, and if Remus came home from wherever he had disappeared to and found him drunk, well, Sirius wasn’t up for facing one of Remus’ disappointed looks right now. Tea it was.

Sirius was just glad that the kitchen didn’t have any mirrors so he didn’t have to stare at his colossal mistakes while he flicked his wand to set the new kettle he had purchased for Remus for the last Christmas. It was one of those fancy ones that shouted out the types of tea based on how warm the water had gotten. It was definitely overkill since neither of them ever drank anything beyond earl grey, but he had seen it and been unable to pass it up.

His head was still tucked into his arms on the tabletop when the kettle shouted out earl grey. He jabbed his wand at it without bothering to pick his head up, and the water shot out of the kettle into his waiting cup, which then floated over and landed next to his elbow. 

“Sirius?” Remus’ voice floated in from the front door and Sirius didn’t pick his head up to see how long he had been moping at the table. His tea was cold when he nudged the side of the cup with his arm.

There were footsteps behind him and then fingers tangled in his hair.

“I wouldn’t,” Sirius said, words muffled by his arms.

“Hmm?” Remus hummed in response, still carding through Sirius’ hair.

“Your fingers will probably be purple now.”

The fingers didn’t stop, but Remus did sigh loud enough to cut through Sirius’ fog. “What did you do, Sirius.” It wasn’t really a question so much as a statement of exasperation and Sirius didn’t feel the need to answer. It wasn’t as if Remus couldn’t see the mess he had made. “Well, come on, then. Let’s go straighten this out so you’ll stop sulking.”

“I’m not sulking,” Sirius said, still not picking his head up. “And you think I haven’t tried already?”

Remus didn’t answer, just slid his fingers from Sirius’ hair and down his cheek to curl around the back of his neck. A gentle squeeze had Sirius leaning into the touch, which in turn had him lifting his head from the table. He almost smiled at Remus’ trick, but he couldn’t quite muster the energy.

“I’m sorry I’m such a mess,” he said, leaning into Remus’ hand a little further and closing his eyes when long fingers slid down his jaw.

“Oh, love, you’re not a mess. You might have made a mess, but that’s nothing new. And it’s nothing we can’t fix.” Remus bent and kissed Sirius lightly, just enough to get Sirius to chase after him, standing up in the process. His knees popped as he stood, but so did Remus’ back, so he didn’t feel quite so bad about that.

Sirius let Remus drag him back upstairs to the bathroom and smirked a little when the first thing Remus did was start stripping him down. Remus just swatted him on the shoulder, however, and turned him towards the shower. 

He reached for the taps, but Remus stopped him. “Let me try something first?” 

Nodding, Sirius hoped that meant Remus would climb in the shower with him. 

Instead, Remus pulled out his wand and Sirius couldn’t follow the intricate movements. He stopped trying after the first loop back and just waited. His head got hot and he touched his cheek to see if he was flushing for some reason, but the skin felt cool. Frowning he reached further up to find that his hair was so hot that there was steam coming off the top of his head. Shaking his head did nothing to help, just left him coughing as he inhaled a mouthful of hair steam that tasted faintly of coloring tonic.

Just when it was so hot he was sure he couldn’t stand it anymore the shower turned on, spitting cold water everywhere. Remus jumped back to avoid getting wet, but didn’t escape the spray that shot all over the front of his trousers and shirt.

“Bugger,” he hissed, and shot a drying charm at himself. 

Sirius, for his part, was shivering almost instantly, and he glared at Remus before adjusting the water temperature to something tolerable.

“What was that for?”

“I had to cool you down before your hair cooked,” Remus shrugged, the water stopping abruptly and making Sirius jump.

“Cooked?!”

“But I steamed the coloring off.”

“You...” Sirius trailed off and jumped out of the shower, nearly tripping over the lip of the tub and falling into Remus’ shoulder. Remus just caught him and turned him towards the mirror so he could see that his hair was back to its normal shade of black. “You really did, didn’t you?” Sirius wanted to be embarrassed by the awe in his voice, but decided it let Remus know he was proud and that was okay. It was a clever bit of charm work that Sirius hadn’t even considered. “Clever git,” he murmured, leaning in for a kiss.

Remus just turned and tucked his face into the crook of Sirius’ neck. “How about we Apparate over to the Leaky Cauldron for supper. I don’t think either of us has the energy to cook anything right now.” The words came out muffled, Sirius felt them rumbling into the side of his neck, but he just smiled and wrapped his arms around Remus.

“Yeah, alright.”

***

The morning of his birthday Sirius woke up to the sun peeking through the windows and fluttering across the bed. Groaning, he rolled over and contemplated going back to sleep until it was over. He wasn’t ready to face being another year older. Between the grey hair and the way his knees fought him every morning he was feeling it more than enough without the reminder that time didn’t stop, even for him.

The only thing that pried him out of bed was the knowledge that Remus had been planning _something_ and that it was likely that James, Lily and even Harry were all in on it. He would rather age all his years at once than disappoint Remus, so he slowly sat up and leveraged himself out of the bed and into the shower.

The water helped wake him up, and he spent longer than he probably should have washing and conditioning his hair. Once clean he threw on one of the pairs of new denims he had bought and a soft blue button down that Remus liked before following smell of non-burning bacon towards the kitchen.

James was standing at his stove, Lily and Remus sitting at the table with plates of bacon and pancakes already in front of them.

“Good morning,” Remus said, smiling softly, and standing up to give Sirius a quick kiss.

“Happy birthday!” James added, grinning from the stove.

“Boy, am I glad to see you,” Sirius said, smirking at James. “It’s nice to know at least one person who can cook.”

“Unfair,” Lily said while Remus just smacked Sirius on the shoulder. Sirius laughed at them both, unrepentant.

“Lily, love of my life, the last time you made stew it turned everyone purple for a week,” James said, flipping bacon and pulling of a batch of pancakes, somehow at the same time.

Remus shrugged and pulled a chair around the table so he could lean his shoulder into Sirius like they were twenty again. Sirius didn’t complain. “At least you didn’t poison everyone,” Remus said, putting bacon on a plate and passing it to Sirius to stack up his own pancakes.

Snorting, Lily poured two cups of coffee and passed one to Sirius before adding far too much sugar to the other one and handing it to James. “If I was going to poison everyone it wouldn’t be by accident.” 

Sirius couldn’t disagree with that, but he nudged her ankle under the table anyway, just to see her smile at him. Remus watched him, then laced their fingers together, making it harder to eat but Sirius let him anyway. It was one of those days where he particularly wanted the contact.

“Harry and Ginny are coming by in a few hours with food from Molly, she seems to think none of us are up to cooking a birthday dinner. Pete owled, he’s going to be late, something about work. He said not to wait for him, he’ll just have some cake with us later.” 

“And he owled you and not here?” Remus’ voice was slightly pinched, but he took a deep breath and Sirius watched as he shook his head and smiled again, choosing to let it go. He always marveled at how Remus could do that.

“I think it’s because he knew either Harry or I was providing the food, and he didn’t want us to make food he wouldn’t be here to eat. At least, that’s what I assume,” James said with a shrug before turning back to Sirius. “While we wait for Harry and the food, though, I brought my old broom by, thought we could play a little pick up Quidditch.”

Sirius stared at James for a full thirty seconds before remembering he had a mouthful of bacon and he should chew. When Remus didn’t discourage the insanity, and Lily just smiled, Sirius nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Remus stayed with Lily to clean up their late breakfast while James and Sirius went out to the yard. Sirius had never been more grateful that their neighbors lived so far away; a couple of guys flying around on brooms wouldn’t be any more recognizable than a large bird.

He wobbled a little bit when he first kicked off, and had to correct quickly to not just tumble a couple of feet back to the ground. James was a little smoother, but even he looked a little more uncertain than he used to, and Sirius wasn’t sure if time had affected their skills or his memory. Probably both. He had to force himself to not look down as they threw a Quaffle around and he got used to being in the air again.

By the time Harry and Ginny showed up with the food – and without their youngest child probably because the older two were at Hogwarts and Ginny decided it wasn’t fair for only one of them to be there – Sirius was whipping around like he was a teenager again, decidedly regretting his choice in trousers, but loving the wind on his face and the freedom of flying again. He had almost forgotten how much he loved being in the air.

Lily was hugging her son and daughter-in-law while Sirius tried to remember how to land. As his feet touched down he only stumbled a little bit, and Remus’ hand on his elbow kept even that from being noticeable. When James toppled forwards Sirius snickered, and since Harry and Lily did as well he didn’t even feel bad about it.

“What are you wearing?” Harry asked, frowning at Sirius. Ginny smacked him in the arm, but the effect was ruined when Remus snickered.

“Don’t you mean, happy birthday, Sirius?” Ginny said, pointedly, but she was grinning, too, so Sirius ignored her.

“We haven’t had the heart to tell him that his trousers don’t fit,” James said, standing back up and dusting himself off. 

“What do you mean, they don’t fit?” Sirius said, trying to keep his voice calm and steady, but feeling torn between defending himself and immediately stomping off to his bedroom and changing into one of his old, well-loved and worn out pairs of trousers. “They’re perfectly in style!”

“If you’re one of my kids, maybe,” Harry muttered under his breath, and Sirius glared at him, feeling his ears heating up.

“It’s all right, love,” Remus said, steering everyone toward the door. It was really too cold to stay outside without the adrenaline of flying, or at least a copious amount of warming charms. “They make your arse look great,” he deadpanned, and Sirius wasn’t sure if he meant it or if he was taking the piss, so he decided to ignore the whole thing.

“Sod the lot of you, then, making fun of an old man on his birthday.”

“Sirius,” James groaned, flinging himself across the sofa and taking up all three seats until Lily sat on his stomach. “Given your genetics you’re probably going to live to see one hundred and forty. Please don’t start calling yourself old now, you’re barely middle aged. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and have a proper midlife crisis as your years dictate.”

Sirius blinked a couple of times then turned to Remus, slow, thinking back over the last few weeks. “Why didn’t you tell me I wasn’t old yet?”

Smiling, Remus sat down on the loveseat and tugged Sirius down with him to settle between his legs, leaning against his chest. Once Sirius was sufficiently settled to how he could assume Remus wanted him, Remus’ arms wrapped around his chest, Remus chuckled in his ear. “Because you were rather determined to play the martyr to the ravages of old age, so I thought I’d just let you get on with it for a while.”

“Berk,” Sirius muttered, but he tugged at the hands over his chest so he could kiss Remus’ knuckles anyway.

“Be nice to me or you can’t have your gift,” Remus said, pressing a kiss to Sirius’ shoulder before relaxing back against the seat again.

“Can’t the two of you keep it at least PG while the rest of us have to watch?” Harry whined, looking around the room for any allies, and while Lily was making sympathetic faces at him, James and Ginny were both sort of cooing, which was actually the thing that made Sirius want to stop. But only a little.

Sirius decided that the best response to Harry’s griping was to turn around and kiss Remus, just to hear Harry groan. Remus made sure he kept it decent, though, pulling back when Sirius tried to slide his hands into Remus’ hair. Reluctantly, Sirius let him, pressing back against his chest as he turned back around. 

“So, did I hear something about presents?”

Before anyone could answer, though, there was a knock at the door. Harry got up to answer it, and returned with not just Peter, but Regulus, to Sirius’ surprise.

“I thought you were still in France?” Sirius said, startled into forgetting to even say hello.

At the same time, James wrangled his way out from under Lily to clap Peter on the shoulder. “I thought you were going to be later than this.”

“Apparated in,” Regulus shrugged, “I wasn’t going to miss my big brother getting even older.” He helped himself to one of the beers that were on the table under a chilling charm and sat down on the edge of the sofa.

“Thanks,” Sirius smiled at Regulus who floated a second beer in Sirius’ direction with a smirk.

“Yeah, I didn’t think I would be here this soon, either,” Peter was saying, also grabbing a beer and finding a seat. “But Marlene wants to pick up some extra hours before Dorcas’ birthday, so I got to leave early.”

“Well, then I guess it’s a good thing that my mother doesn’t understand the concept of reasonable portions,” Ginny laughed, flicking her wand so that the platters of food started floating to the table.

“Wait, I thought I was getting my present?” Sirius asked, more of a grumble than he intended, which had Remus chuckling in his ear.

“Well, since everyone is here, I suppose if you’d like your gift before food that can be arranged. It is your birthday, after all.”

Sirius grinned, and leveraged himself up from his seat, trying not to look too stiff, or put too much weight on Remus while he did it. Everyone else was similarly clamboring to their feet and almost like they had prearranged it, were all moving towards the front door.

“Do you all know something I don’t?” Sirius asked, frowning at his friends, his family.

No one answerd, just let Remus pull open the door and lead Sirius outside, where he pulled up almost instantly, James running into his back.

“Remus?”

Remus didn’t say anything, just nudged Sirius shoulder to get him moving again. There, parked in front of their small home, was a classic Triumph, the same year as his old bike from the looks of it.

“We all pitched in,” Harry said, breaking the silence.

Sirius barely heard him, just approached the bike like it would disappear if he got too close, not entirely certain he wasn’t still asleep. Especially since when he got up close there was a large gash down the left side of the gas tank, exactly where he scraped his old bike up skidding out in the rain before he really knew how to ride it.

“I tracked it down last year,” Remus said softly, leaning into Sirius’ side, “but it took a little time, some work and a lot of help to actually acquire it. It’s from all of us. Happy birthday, love.”

“Holy fuck,” Sirius breathed, running his hands over the handlebars, feeling almost reverant. He had sold his bike nearly twenty years earlier, when he and Remus first moved to the county where the roads weren’t really safe for motorcycles, and the neighbors were just a little too nosy for him to fly it. But Old Lady Pritchard had died nearly a decade earlier, and apparently Remus knew even more than he had how much he had missed his bike.

“The only rule,” Remus added, stepping back to join everyone else, “is that you can’t take it out until after cake.”

“Then why, exactly, aren’t we eating?” Sirius asked, nearly jogging back inside, followed by everyone else, laughing and flinging spells every which way to set the table, food floating, colliding with plates, and eventually all ending up at the table with everyone sitting around it. As the potatoes floated their way onto his plate Sirius decided that if this was what getting older was like, he could survive it. As soon as he found a dye charm that worked.


End file.
